


Orion

by DisposableVillain



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Boyfriends, Bruises, Chocolate, Cuts, F/M, Friendship, Girlfriend, Help, Mythology - Freeform, Orion, Stargazing, Stars, Unhappy Ending, careful, content warnings, manipulative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 18:58:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17872949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisposableVillain/pseuds/DisposableVillain
Summary: Orion... Did you know, the bruises on your neck look just like the night sky you spend so many sleepless nights admiring?





	Orion

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old fic, but for those of you who don't know me, I'm Elliot! This is a short story based off my friend's OC - they're samael_dire on instagram, please check them out! Hope you guys enjoy. If I missed a content warning, please let me know. Yeah Idk why I'm posting this but oh well.

******CW:** Bruising, abusive relationships.

* * *

 

The night was Orion's solace – an irony with her name taken into consideration. The way the cool breeze toyed with the hairs on her arms, wisping through strands of blue hair.

It was quiet. The only quiet time in her life.

When teachers weren't asking her well-meaning questions with concerned glances over her pale, straggly form, fading to gratitude when she told them she was fine.

When Castor wasn't bragging about his newest collection of records, and Rachel wasn't humming to keep herself from telling him to shut up.

When Lucy wasn't sneaking up behind her and trying to force her to eat chocolate – the one thing that cured all woes, she claimed.

When Tobias' hands weren't wrapped tight around her, squeezing like a blacksmith's tongs as it moulded rough gold and silver into more desirable forms.

She closed her eyes. The night air cupped the bruise on her cheek, and the throbbing heat began to ease. "I know you're there." She didn't need to look.

Lucy crept out of the bushes. "Are your parents out?" Orion opened her eyes and nodded. "Is he asleep?" Another nod. Lucy clambered up over the fence and onto the patio beside Orion. Neither spoke for a minute. "He's killing you."

"No he's not." Orion let her eyelids fall shut. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"Sometimes."

Orion looked up at her. "How can I  _sometimes_  be alive?"

Lucy leaned her back against the fence. "You're not living like this. You're barely surviving."

"I'm fine," Orion insisted. She felt Lucy's gaze burn on her shoulders, and she looked down.

Hues of brown and purple danced over them, swirling into blue on the edges of her neck. Scabs of red broke through the cloud like stars, surrounded by a pus-yellow glow.

Green clung to the cape of discoloured skin, like vines trying to climb up a solid stone wall, or her trying to crawl away to her solitude, away from his fists, and teeth, and feet, and knife.

She pulled the shoulder of her sleeve up, hiding the wounds.

"Orion." Lucy's words were careful and didn't flow from her mouth like an infinite waterfall of bubbles like they usually did. "Did you know, the bruises on your neck look just like the night sky you spend so many sleepless nights admiring?"

Orion opened her mouth several times, but nothing came out. Finally, she took a deep breath. "I guess that's why I keep coming back," she mumbled. "The sky can't love me back."

"He doesn't love you." Lucy grabbed Orion's hand and pushed up her sleeve. A green hand grasped her wrist, mildly camouflaging the shallow slashes on her underarm. "This isn't love!"

"You can't have love without losing something." Orion pulled back her arm.

"This isn't love!" Lucy repeated. "This is abuse!"

Abuse. The word hung thick, the crickets falling silent for a moment to make its presence even more noticeable.

Orion opened the door and turned away from Lucy. "I'm tired. Goodnight."

"Ori-" Lucy was cut off as Orion closed and locked the door behind her.

He wasn't abusing her. He wasn't. She shouldn't even think the word. He just wanted her to be better; the works nothing more than a symbol of his care, and nothing less either.

She wandered into her room. Tobias snored in her bed. The curtains were drawn, and she looked outside. Lucy's blonde hair was visible – only for a few seconds – as she left the estate, the stars and planets winking at her.

They shone and twinkled, danced and giggled, flirted and mingled, but they couldn't love her like she loved them. They were balls of fire in galaxies lightyears away from her own. Inanimate.

She raised her gaze. Orion was easy to find; shield raised, sword poised to strike down a prey she couldn't see. Stance tall and straight, legs spread and sturdy, arms tense and still.

A symbol of dawn.

He was the rising sun.

"Orion?" His voice was sleepy.

Orion pulled the curtains closed. "Coming." She toed off her slippers and climbed into the bed beside him.

His arm wrapped around her waist, too tight. The fresh colours would blossom over the fading tans around her back and hips the next day.

She reached up to pull her hair out of the messy bun she wore it in, but he caught her hand.

"Leave it. It looks better that way." He yawned. "And if you take it out, your hair will mess with my nose."

"Okay," she whispered.

He took off her glasses for her and placed them on the bedside table. He held her closer and kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep."

She obediently closed her eyes, and was rewarded with another kiss and a looser grip on her waist as he tucked her head beneath his chin.

It made a warm feeling spread through her. She had done well.

No matter what anyone else said, Tobias loved her. He was light.

He was the light she used to cringe back from, favouring the softer glow of the stars from a distance. He was the light she never deigned to gaze upon lest she be blinded.

But she never considered that it was because she didn't deserve to look at it.

And that was what Tobias was helping her do. Earn the right to look at it. To look at him. To earn his love.

The marks were nothing more than a symbol of her journey to that love, and nothing less. They would fade once the journey ended – nothing more than a memory as distant as the stars she studied.

She just had to be good enough to earn an end.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed.


End file.
